In 1988, company President Tom Collins wrote the first manual standardizing underwater bridge-inspection techniques, a book still used by the U.S. Department of Transportation. And in 2005, Eric Thorkildsen, the Albany-based Northeast regional manager for Collins Engineers, authored the book on how to inspect the highway signs that hang above interstates.

"The big thing about this business, if you can say you wrote the book, it kind of gives you an advantage," Thorkildsen said.

If you work for Collins Engineers, you can count on spending time 15 feet underwater inspecting a lock on the Erie Canal in six inches of visibility, or perched on a giant road sign as the I-90 traffic goes roaring by beneath you, Thorkildsen said.

"Most of the people we have here at Collins like to be outside. They want to do things outside. They want to be a little bit adventurous. They like the diving," Thorkildsen said.

The company, and its Albany-area regional office, have found success at being very good at things that might be termed "high adventure" engineering. The firm has staked out a niche that has won it respect and allowed it to get a foothold in the very competitive New York market.

"I think if we didn't have this niche, if I was just Joe Engineer wanting to open up an office here, and wanting to do work for the Department of Transportation--say design a bridge--I'd get no work," Thorkildsen said.

From poughkeepsie to guantanamo bay

Collins Engineers was born in 1979 in Chicago. Tom Collins, who was a big fan of the old "Sea Hunt" TV show, learned to dive in 1968 to work on a dam project. He made a reputation for himself in the underwater-inspection field and eventually formed his own company.

He started out with contracts for the state of Illinois and then branched out to pier inspection for the Navy.

There was steady work, but not a lot of it until the New York State Thruway bridge over Schoharie Creek collapsed in 1987, Thorkildsen said. Suddenly, states all around the country were aware of the dangers of water action on bridges. Underwater bridge inspections became required.

Collins Engineers' workload grew and, in 1999, the company bid on a New York state Department of Transportation contract. As part of that deal, Collins agreed to put an office in New York. Thorkildsen, who was running the New York City office of a California engineering company, was hired to start up Collins' New York operation.

This year, the company moved to 1028 Broadway in Albany from its long-time home in East Greenbush. There is room to grow and space for the company to store its trucks and inspection equipment, Thorkildsen said.

The Albany office has 10 employees and supervises another two and a part-time worker based in Rochester, Thorkildsen's office is responsible for the entire Northeast, but most of the work has been in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The Albany office contributes about $1.5 million annually to total company revenue of about $15 million a year, Thorkildsen said.

Currently, the firm is working on lock inspections for the New York State Canal Corp., a contract to inspect overhead signs in Poughkeepsie, and will be doing bridge inspections for the state DOT in western New York. From time to time, it also sends workers to the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to inspect the piers there.

'Here to stay'

The DOT hires Collins Engineers because they're good at what they do, said DOT spokeswoman Carol Breen. Consulting engineers are hired based on experience, skills and credentials, she said.

Other companies in the underwater-inspection business operating in the Northeast include Rockville, Md.-based Stearns Engineering, which offers bridge inspections along with conventional engineering services; New Jersey-based Pickering Courts & Sumerson Inc., which also does landscaping and surveying; and Boswell Engineering, also of New Jersey, which has an office in Albany on Madison Avenue.

And there are many underwater-inspection companies operating in the New York City metro area, but few of them can reach upstate locations quickly, Thorkildsen said.

"We are one of the few firms that have in-house divers and engineers up here in Albany," he said, and that helps the company win upstate business.

Collins also sends teams out to help train others in bridge and sign inspection, under a contract with the federal DOT, Thorkildsen said.

Collins made its name in underwater inspection, but branched into inspecting "highway ancillary structures" because underwater inspection during the winter months becomes difficult, Thorkildsen said. The same engineering skills used to check a bridge piling can be used to determine whether or not an aluminum strut on a large highway direction sign is sound, he said.

While there are plenty of contract divers who conduct bridge inspections, Collins believes that it's better to turn an engineer into a diver and highway sign inspector, than to hire a diver and then teach him or her what to look for, Thorkildsen said.

"These guys have to go down there and figure out if there is a problem," he said. "You not only have to be able to dive, you have to be able to make an engineering assessment under water."

If an inspector is up on a sign, he has to be able to tell if that crack is something that will cause a collapse, or if it's been there since the sign was built, Thorkildsen said.

It's taken five years to establish Collins Engineers as a regional player, Thorkildsen said.

"Two years ago, people were still saying, 'Collins, aren't you guys out of Chicago?' They are not saying that anymore. I think we have established ourselves," he said. "I think we have entered a new era. Everybody knows who we are and how we have established ourselves in New York and that we are here to stay."